DISRAELI GEARS

Samlip

Samlip Tiger (1st style) derailleur main image Samlip Tiger (2nd style) derailleur main image Samlip Tiger (1st style) derailleur main image

According to the short history on its web site, Samlip Motor Works (or possibly Samlip Automobile Co. Ltd.) was established in 1954, possibly in Gyeongbuk in the eastern part of South Korea. It soon, in 1958, produced band hub brakes for bicycles and then, in 1961, dynamo lighting systems for bicycles. These last were crucial - from this modest beginning, in 1969, the company moved into making headlamps for motor cars. The web site then, rather charmingly, describes the company as going through a period of 'leaping and growing'. Today SL Corporation, as Samlip is now known, is a behemoth supplying lighting systems and a growing smörgåsbord of other electronics to the massive, global, just-in-time, manufacturing operations of the Hyundai Motor Company.

I am only aware of one Samlip model of derailleur. This is the rather imaginatively named Samlip Tiger. According to Wikipedia:

"The tiger has been strongly associated with Korean people and Korean culture. It appears in not only the Korean foundation mythology but also in folklore, as well as a favourite subject of Korean art such as painting and sculpture. The mascot of the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, South Korea is Hodori, a symbolized tiger to represent Korean people."

Needless to say, and despite this build up, the Samlip Tiger was a relatively modest copy of an, itself relatively modest, late 1970s Shimano Skylark.


Samlip - SL Corporation web site 2009

Samlip - SL Corporation web site 2009

Samlip - SL Corporation web site 2009 image 1 thumbnail